Magnetic excitations and phonons simultaneously studied by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in optimally doped Bi$_{1.5}$Pb$_{0.55}$Sr$_{1.6}$La$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+delta}$


Abstract in English

Magnetic excitations in the optimally doped high-$T_mathrm{c}$ superconductor Bi$_{1.5}$Pb$_{0.55}$Sr$_{1.6}$La$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+delta}$ (OP-Bi2201, $T_mathrm{c}simeq 34$ K) are investigated by Cu $L_3$ edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS), below and above the pseudogap opening temperature. At both temperatures the broad spectral distribution disperses along the (1,0) direction up to $sim$350~meV at zone boundary, similarly to other hole-doped cuprates. However, above $sim$0.22 reciprocal lattice units, we observe a concurrent intensity decrease for magnetic excitations and quasi-elastic signals with weak temperature dependence. This anomaly seems to indicate a coupling between magnetic, lattice and charge modes in this compound. We also compare the magnetic excitation spectra near the anti-nodal zone boundary in the single layer OP-Bi2201 and in the bi-layer optimally doped Bi$_{1.5}$Pb$_{0.6}$Sr$_{1.54}$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+delta}$ (OP-Bi2212, $T_mathrm{c}simeq96$ K). The strong similarities in the paramagnon dispersion and in their energy at zone boundary indicate that the strength of the super-exchange interaction and the short-range magnetic correlation cannot be directly related to $T_mathrm{c}$, not even within the same family of cuprates.

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